A Beam of Light

Osana looked around. All she could see was a vast construction site.

The Planetary Governor's territory, the "Land of Redemption" that kind man had spoken of, seemed nothing like she had imagined.

After last winter ended, a massive wave of mutated monsters swept through Osana's homeland, the place people in Revival City called the Southern Provinces.

It was a terrible disaster. Many settlements were completely destroyed.

They had barely managed to endure until the wave of mutated monsters passed, but that didn't mean the disaster was over.

They hadn't had time to sow their crops in spring. And after surviving another winter and fighting off the alien monsters... all sorts of factors had left people with drastically depleted food reserves. Hunger and shortages plagued the Southern Provinces.

What did people who couldn't survive do?

They turned into demons.

Osana and her younger brother had once lived in great comfort. The Southern Provinces had fertile land and had suffered relatively little erosion from the Wasteland Energy Storm, so many settlements there could make a living through agriculture. In fact, the Southern Provinces had once been an important source of grain. The tens of thousands of people in Revival City's inner and outer districts relied mainly on grain imported from the south.

Osana's father had been a plantation owner. Before everything fell apart, their plantation had a population of over ten thousand. In years of good harvests, it could feed everyone and still produce plenty to sell in exchange for industrial goods.

It went without saying that Osana had lived like a little princess, far better than the vast majority of people in this wasteland.

But it all fell apart around the time spring turned to summer.

A large number of outside raiders besieged the plantation, and then a riot broke out within its walls.

Under the protection of their guards, her family tried to break out and flee the plantation at the last moment. Many people who hadn't taken part in the riot tried to escape with them.

But amid the chaos, she was separated from her father.

She changed her name, smudged dirt across her face, cut off her hair...

With her younger brother in tow, she followed a band of refugees and somehow ended up in Revival City.

She had suffered too much along the way.

For a bite to eat, she was willing to do anything. Even the smallest job was worth it if it got her a little food. She had even begged, gotten into biting, clawing fights, stolen, and deceived people...

Before everything had crumbled, she had been taught to behave like a proper lady. She had never imagined she would end up like this.

But she had made it through.

For months, she had been so hungry she could barely think straight, and her little brother, who had only just turned ten, was malnourished.

But at least they were both still alive.

Still, she often found herself lost.

If she had never known a better life, perhaps she could have stayed lost in the darkness. But only a few months ago, she had been a little princess, the apple of her father's eye. Her daily worries had been identifying and restoring the pre-war artworks he had bought at great expense, helping him manage the estate, and keeping the accounts.

Now she had to agonize over what they would eat the next day.

More than anything, this life showed no sign of ending. There was no hope, not a glimmer of light.

She felt as though she couldn't hold on much longer.

More than once, she had wondered if dying might actually be easier than living in such a terrible world.

But every time she looked into her little brother's eyes, she pushed the thought away and gritted her teeth to carry on.

Strangely enough, she hadn't been very close to the brother who was seven years younger than her. She had often thought the mischievous little brat was terribly annoying.

Yet over the past few months, she would rather die than leave him behind. Once, when someone tried to abduct him, she had attacked them like a madwoman. Even when they beat her until her head was bleeding, she never let go.

She didn't know why. She only knew that anyone who threatened the last family she had left would have to fight her.

But she still understood, with a heavy heart, that they were close to starving to death.

The turmoil in the Southern Provinces had far-reaching consequences. With grain imports dwindling, food prices in Revival City kept rising. It was getting harder and harder to feed herself and her brother with odd jobs.

Then, recently, she heard even worse news: supposedly the biggest grain merchant in Revival City had gone missing. Soon afterward, food prices in the city became even more volatile.

And right around that time, a traveling merchant opened a free congee stand in the slums outside Revival City.

Anyone could get a bowl of hot congee there, provided they listened to a full reading of the declaration that Mr. Gu Hang, the Planetary Governor, had delivered on his first day in the wasteland.

She had fought someone to secure a place for herself and her brother.

The Governor's declaration had been quite long. At the time, she had only wanted the reading to hurry up and get to the meal, so she couldn't remember much of what it said.

There was just one line she remembered clearly: the Governor would make sure that everyone who submitted to him could live a good life.

The next day, the congee stand was still open, so she went again. But this time, they told her that those who had already eaten weren't allowed another bowl unless they were willing to join a merchant caravan to the Governor's Camp and become one of the Governor's people.

She didn't hesitate for long before pressing her thumbprint onto the paper.

A few days later, when the caravan set out, she went with her little brother.

Of course, the circumstances that forced her to travel to the Governor's Camp had played a part in her decision. But hadn't she also hoped to change things, and find some light and hope?

She had expected to see a fairly well-developed city, but instead she saw vast stretches of dirt. Quite a few simple concrete buildings had already been put up, but most were still under construction.

Still, judging by all the building work going on throughout the camp, there should at least be plenty of jobs.

But could someone as small as her do construction work?

With her mind in a muddle and no idea what the future held, Osana took her brother's hand and followed the group to the registration area.

When it was her turn, the clerk asked her some basic questions.

Her name, age, what she was good at, what kind of work she wanted to do...

She answered truthfully.

"Hm?" The clerk across from her suddenly looked up. "You can read and write?"

"Uh... yes."

"That's wonderful!" The clerk was overjoyed. "Go fill out another form at that table. Congratulations—you'll get a pretty good position."

Osana went over, still baffled.

There was hardly anyone at that table.

After she filled out a form, they assigned her two jobs. During the day, she would work as a clerk at a textile mill that was about to open, arranging and carrying out production plans, tracking output, and managing the production process...

Her second job was to teach at the night-school literacy classes.

The work they assigned her put her at ease. These were things she was genuinely good at. Back at the plantation, she had helped her father with some of the management. The work now involved clerical duties at a textile factory rather than managing agricultural production, but she was still more suited to that than to manual labor.

She was even more tempted once she heard what the pay would be.

Under the work-point system, the supplies she earned each day would be more than enough to feed herself and her brother, with plenty left over to save.

It was nothing like the life she had lived as a little princess, but after months of drifting from place to place, it was the only beam of light she had seen.